OU senior midfielder Samantha Faulkner will script her own online journal at SoonerSports.com for the 2004 season. Faulkner will share her experiences with Sooner fans as she captains the OU soccer team that is currently 4-1-3 on the season.

The Sooners are fresh off a road upset of then-No. 9 Arizona State and they will play at home for the first time in six games when OU opens the Big 12 season against Missouri (3-4-1) on Friday, Sept. 24 in Norman, Okla.

This is the fourth installment of Samantha's journal. There is a link at the bottom of the page so you can submit questions for Samantha to reply to in her next entry.

Samantha Faulkner Journal No. 4 - Sept. 24, 2004Last weekend we had a really big win against Arizona State. It was a real intense and exciting game. We played pretty well in both of our games. We had problems scoring in the first game (San Diego State) and went into yet another overtime game. But, in the second game we kept the pressure on ASU and had so much momentum towards the end of the game that we kept the ball on their half and kept pounding away. It took another overtime to get a goal, but at least we got a goal this time and broke the overtime streak.

Sunday's game was such a big win because Arizona State was ranked ninth and I think the loss moved them down to No. 18. It was a good boost to have starting Big 12 play this weekend. It’s kind of like we’re starting over now with the Big 12 season, because everyone will start from scratch. Now we are looking forward to our first conference game against Missouri. Hopefully we’ll get our first win of conference play and go one game at a time until the conference tournament.

I want to thank everyone for their support and for emailing in all of the questions. I will get to as many as possible and look forward to answering more next time around.

What do you like the most about OU?-Jamie from Elk City, Okla.I’m big into personal relations, so I tab a specific experience on the personal relationship I’ve had there. With all the friends and authority figures I have met at OU, I have found that everyone is so nice because they are so willing to help others out.

What do you feel is your biggest strength and weakness?-David from Dallas, TexasPersonally my biggest strength would have to be my vision on the field and my knowledge of the game. I like being the problem solver on the team and telling people where the ball needs to go in order to have success. I think my biggest weakness is my fitness. I’m not the fastest girl in the world and I’m really not that good on the dribble. I’m more of a distributor and I’ll give it to the girls that can dribble and beat people one-versus-one.

What do you do when you are stressed out?-Sara from Kansas City, MissouriWhen I’m stressed out, and I’m stressed out a lot it seems, I like to drive around in my car and listen to my music really loud. I have certain CDs that I can sing along with when no on else is with me. I don’t do this a lot, but sometimes I’ll go for a really long jog too. I don’t jog as much as I should, but it is another way I relieve stress.

When did you first decide that you wanted to play soccer in college?-Megan from Little Rock, Ark.My parents and I always talked about going to college and if I could play soccer throughout my college career, that it would be ideal. I kind of expected to once I was a junior in high school looking at where to attend college. I never really pictured myself going to college and not playing soccer. I probably wouldn’t have gone to a college where I could not play soccer.

Do you have any pre-game superstitions?-Jeff from Chicago, Ill.I always put my equipment on in the same order. That might just be out of habit though and not a hard core superstition. I do wear a sweatband that Lauren MacIver and I both have. We keep it on our wrist during warm ups and push it up our arm during the game. If one of us forgets it, neither of us will wear it. Also, if we go to a pre-game breakfast, I’ll eat the same thing from the last pre-game breakfast just because I know it won’t upset my stomach.

That's all for this week. I hope to see you all at Friday's game against Missouri at 7:30 p.m. Thanks for your support!

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